Chloe Watson: The goal for me, even from the first interview I had with you, is to become a multiple-weight world champion.”

Chloe Watson: The goal for me, even from the first interview I had with you, is to become a multiple-weight world champion.”

Chloe Watson was a part of a truly iconic all-female card just over a year ago at the Royal Albert Hall, live on Sky Sports. On Easter Sunday, Watson gets another taste of that kind of limelight.

Sky Sports will again showcase another special night for women’s boxing. The Olympia in London will host the first-ever UK show for Jake Paul and his Most Valuable Promotions. Another all-female main card featuring that much-anticipated world lightweight title unification showdown between Caroline Dubois and Terri Harper, and Ellie Scotney finally getting her moment of trying to go undisputed at super-bantamweight.

But before the lights go down for the fights at the top of the card, the early preliminary section of the show gives Chloe Watson a golden opportunity to start her boxing year in style. “As soon as the card got announced, I was hoping to be on it,” Watson told me over Zoom. “I knew that, as I wasn’t with MVP, it was something that we would have to work towards. But it all worked out for me in the end.”

Tysie Gallagher was the original opponent for the undefeated Finnish bantamweight Teresa Makinen, but when Gallagher sustained an injury in sparring, it gave the Birkenhead-fighter a lifetime. “It was looking like it was full, but then Tysie got injured, which meant that there was a space.”

As Watson says, she is not currently a part of that ever-increasing elite stable of fighters, but her place on the show gives her the perfect opportunity to demonstrate her skills in front of Paul. “I don’t know,” Watson says, if she knows if she could be signed to MVP if she impresses the powers that be. “I am not involved too much with all the discussions, but for me, it motivates me to put on a good performance, and then just go from there, really.”

Watson (9-2) has stepped in to face the unbeaten Teresa Makinen on April 5th at that old Olympia building. “Not too much, I have just been focusing on myself,” Watson replies when I enquired if she had seen much of her next opponent. “I’m just working and getting better, and improving in the gym every single day.”

Watson, a former European flyweight champion, is fighting Makinen at bantamweight, but she isn’t closing the doors at flyweight or super-flyweight. “I feel I could make those weights,” Watson tells me. “But I am just seeing what my best weight is. The goal for me, even from the first interview I had with you, is to become a multiple-weight world champion. I always knew that I could go up in weight. The goal was always to go up in weight, and the way my body is growing at the minute, it just makes sense. My last fight was at bantamweight as well. So when the opportunity came to fight at that weight on this show, it just made sense to be honest.”

The 26-year-old snapped a two-fight losing streak in December when she impressively stopped the normally durable Klaudia Ferenczi in two rounds. “I looked good and felt good to be fair,” Watson says of her last fight. “I have always been a strong fighter on the front foot. I can push people back without necessarily trying. But it was good to get that type of win in my last fight and land some good shots, because that is what I have been working on. It was nice seeing everything I have been working on in the gym come together.”

The fight against the veteran Ferenczi was also at bantamweight, after fighting Shannon Ryan at super-flyweight a few months previously. Watson could feel the benefits of fighting without the constraints of losing the extra few pounds. “I definitely feel stronger, but I don’t know if that is because of my training or the difference in the weight. It’s probably a combination of a lot of things. But my performances will tell everything that needs to be told.”

The fight with Ryan was extremely anticlimactic for Watson. An accidental head clash early in the contest left Watson with a swollen right eye, and she lost a technical decision after four completed rounds. A night of utter frustration for the former European champion. “I always finish strong in my fights. So there was no saying what might have happened in that fight. It didn’t really get going. It’s like the fight didn’t really happen. I didn’t get downhearted because I knew that it was out of my control. What can you do? I knew I had so much more in my locker, and there was so much more I wanted to do in that fight. But it was important for me to get straight back out and keep building, and I feel I did that.”

Watson has options and plenty of them going forward, and at multiple weights. Only Jasmina Zapotoczna and Ryan have beaten her in the pro ranks, and rematches with both are definitely of interest to Watson. Megan Redstall recently won the Commonwealth bantamweight title; Watson would surely be interested in that fight. Maiseyrose Courtney is another potential opponent for her.

“I think it is an exciting time for women’s boxing,” Watson says of what potentially lies ahead for her. “We will all fight each other. There are some good fights to be made, and everyone wants to become a world champion. MVP are signing virtually everyone, so the fights will get made more easily now.”

“There are a lot of fights there that could happen,” Watson added. “But my focus right now is just to put on a good dominant display on April 5th, and then we’ll take it from there.” 

Chloe Watson lost her European flyweight bauble and her unbeaten record on a wafer-thin split-decision to Jasmina Zapotoczna last year, and the defeat to Shannon Ryan seemingly pushed her down the pecking order for major titles. But Watson never lost hope or her ambition. The goal to win world titles in more than one weight division remains the same. A win in April and Watson will surely land another big fight soon after. A talented fighter who still has her best years ahead of her.